Although you don’t see it in the headlines, and you don’t hear it from the “talking heads” on the evening news, and there doesn’t appear to be a great deal of time being spent by politicians searching for solutions,

    WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS IN THIS COUNTRY!

And healthcare reform plans to put 46 million new patients into the system.

Here is a primer for our leaders in Washington:
• The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts that, if current trends continue, the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 in a little more than 10 years.
• The average wait to see a primary care physician can run up to 30 days in many cities.
• 50 years ago half of our physicians were primary care providers.
• By 2000 14 percent of U.S. medical school graduates were entering family medicine.
• By 2005 the figure was 8 percent.
• A recent survey of students interested in internal medicine showed that 98 percent wanted to become specialists.
• When Massachusetts added 340,000 citizens to their universal healthcare program the wait to see a primary care physician in Boston jumped to 61 days.
• The four categories of primary care, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, OBGYN and Pediatrics are the lowest paid averaging about $175,000 while medical specialties such as cardiology demand salaries over $400,000.
• Medical education debt can run up to $200,000.
• Politically correct or not, within a few years over 50% of our medical students will be women and they are far more affected by lifestyle issues than their male colleagues.
• It takes from 8 to 10 years to build a doctor from scratch so there are no quick fixes.
• To the same degree that our general population is aging, our supply of practicing doctors is aging and approaching retirement. In fact the physician shortage would be far more severe if thousands of physicians had not delayed their retirement do to the recent economic calamity.

Here is a primer for American citizens:
• Don’t get sick.
• Don’t change doctors (you might not be able to find a new one).
• Don’t lose your job (same reason).
• Don’t relocate (same reason).
• Schedule a doctor visit for three months from now…you can always cancel it if you aren’t sick or injured by then.
• If you plan to have an accident or heart attack in the immediate future, get in line at the emergency room now.
• If you have health insurance now, plan to pay more.
• If you don’t have health insurance now, plan to pay more.
• If the government doesn’t come up with a solution…plan to pay more.